


once around the sun

by Hope



Category: Gattaca (1997)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-03-20
Updated: 2004-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-02 00:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hope/pseuds/Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Podfic available at: http://leish.dreamwidth.org/18823.html</p>
    </blockquote>





	once around the sun

**Author's Note:**

> Podfic available at: http://leish.dreamwidth.org/18823.html

He thinks this: when the car hit him, his body cracked open and the hard Jerome-shell peeled back. Eugene, suddenly revealed to the light in the microseconds after impact, grasped hold and struggled to escape, and so his body was tense when he hit the tarmac. His back was broken.

Vincent has scars where he's slipped inside Jerome's skin, seams sewn together too neatly to possibly be an accident (he'd never been more sober in his life), and Eugene sees himself in the prone figure on the polished wood floor, splayed and open, agonized; the cages around Vincent's legs are Jerome manifest before the wounds are healed shut.

Eugene imagines Vincent is trying to escape. Not confined in the severe black suit, through the night Vincent's body tries to shed the Jerome-skin, push through and dampen the confidentially laundered bed sheets, soil them with sweat and skin. Eugene has dreams that startle him out of vodka-induced hazes when he remembers them: Vincent somehow pushing out the fabricated bone extensions in his shins during the night and shuffling downstairs naked as the cold dawn licks through the upstairs window, huddled and smaller than Eugene has ever seen him, and yet taller.

Jerome rises early to slough away all traces of Vincent before dawn and Eugene always wakes swearing, sounds harsh in his alcohol-burnt throat, pitifully sober in the sharp light of the new, unforgiving sun. He has imprinted in his mind the exact movements Jerome makes when he steps out in his robe and presses the ignition on the incinerator, but it's a memory always filtered through his sleep-blurred eyes (he's never been more sober in his life) that make the scars on Jerome's legs look jagged, uneven.

The feeling that surges through him when Jerome announces his near-imminent departure is familiar, but Eugene refuses to identify it, to carefully untangle the DNA-spiral twist of anticipation and vulnerability, sickening excitement. He barely remembers the evening but for the constant drum-pounding of his heart, and Jerome's (_Vincent's_) eyes above the rim of the smoke-filled glass: _It's all cloud. No one knows what's beneath._

Vincent's heart pounds erratically in time with his breath and Eugene imagines he can feel the tiny fragments of Vincent escaping the body above him and adhering to his skin. There's parts of Eugene's body that can't feel Vincent's touch and Eugene thinks they might belong to Jerome, now. Irretrievable. When Vincent pulls away in panic Eugene's heart skips but his grip on Vincent's wrist is firm, tiny hairs pulling taught between his fingers and skin stretching and tightening where Jerome tenses underneath. Vincent is so close that all Eugene can see is a flushed blur that he jerks forward purposely. _"If at first you don't succeed,"_ he grates breathlessly, words forceful and clear (_he's never been more sober in his life_), _"try, try again."_

**Author's Note:**

> http://hopeful-fiction.livejournal.com/21571.html  
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/angstslashhope/554997.html

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] once around the sun](https://archiveofourown.org/works/394495) by [growlery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/pseuds/growlery)




End file.
